Sped Up
by Mickeyallister
Summary: What if General Grigio had found Julie and R in the little neighborhood house in the morning, before they woke up. Bad title and I will take suggestions.
1. Grigio

**So I was watching the movie last night and this popped in my head. I'm actually writing this while I'm watching R and M[arcus] grunt at each other. **

**Hope you enjoy! (AN laugh all you want cuz this chapter is 696 words)**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1 Grigio —Night of Julie's call<strong>

General Grigio could feel that his daughter was still alive even though Julie's friend, Nora, told him she was taken by the group of corpses that attacked their group. He was never one for giving up, and he couldn't possibly keep surviving if his last connection to his wife and the pre-zombie days. When his fleet arrives back to the Stadium, he orders his car and Rosso's car behind him to be ready tomorrow by 0700 hours to resume the search, as his girl should still be in that neighborhood and by then the sun would be at least lighting the streets well enough for his soldiers to see any activity.

The next day Grigio and his eight men quickly head out to search for Julie. Even though they were rushing, it still took a good half hour to arrive at the start of the cul-de-sac. He was able to somewhat accurately pinpoint the phone from which Julie had made the call to the street they were currently turning on. He sent four men to the first house on each side of the street, they continued to scour each house, but there was no sign of any human, live or corpse. The groups took about twenty minutes to search each house and there were a little less than thirty that were attached to this street. If she wasn't in any of these houses, then he would just go to the next street and continue searching the neighborhood until sunset. He remembered to pack enough food and water for everyone to last two days in case they were somehow forced to stay in the neighborhood for the night.

After searching five houses per team (an hour and a half of time), they saw a somewhat scratched up red convertible.

"Rosso come with me to check out that car. Everyone else continue searching," Grigio ordered. Rosso walked at a quick pace to his General. Once he reached him they continued at that pace til they reached the car. Grigio opened the door and began to hot wire it. Soon enough the car growled and continued to purr, meaning that someone had siphoned off gas from somewhere else seeing as their military had already drained all of the cars in the nearby communities at the first possible chance. Grigio disconnected the wires and the car's purrs stopped. Rosso and Grigio just raised their guns and walked to the door of the house the car was parked in front of. Both knew that they ingrained in the girl's head to one find a room whose door could lock, two find a room that could be barricaded easily, and three for God's sake go to the second floor. The second floor allowed time for person to hear the zombie's intrusion, and either got out or sufficiently prepare to shoot hostile.

Grigio and Rosso knew she would be on the second floor, but still needed to be safe and checked all the first floor rooms as silently as possible. They didn't want to have to deal with corpses attacking them with their backs turned. It took five minutes to search the rooms and be satisfied with its lack of any sign of a struggle. The only way to tell that someone was here was disturbed dust and empty cans of food. Both men proceeded walk up the stairs, guns cocked and ready to fire at the first sight of a corpse. There were four doors in the hallway and although they knew she would most likely be in one of the end rooms, still diligently searched the other rooms.

Finding nothing of interest, in any of the other three rooms the men tried turning the knob on the final door, a sturdy mahogany that had both mentally smiling and saying 'that a girl.' Finding the door to be locked, Grigio hooded at Rosso who backed away a bit as Grigio went to one side of the door. Rosso brought his foot up and kicked the door open with as much force as possible. It swung in and both men rechecked their guns quickly surveyed every corner of the room, until finally landing on the occupied bed.

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><p><strong>More to come soon,<strong>

**Mickey**


	2. Julie

**This chapter sticks closer to the book than the movie, but its not huge just electronic device usage and where R slept for the night.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2 Julie ~Night of Airport Departure<strong>

Julie knew it wasn't exactly healthy for her to think of R this way. I mean he's a freaking corpse and they could never really be together since Julie had to live in the Stadium to be relatively safe. She couldn't practically stay with R when she already had a life and other people who care about her in the Stadium. She was going to ask R before she left if they could set up some kind of meeting place in the city for them to still be able to see each other after she returns to her home.

After dinner she and R just relaxed on the couch in the living room and listened to some music on her iPod.

"After listening to some of these songs on your record player R, they jus don't sound the same they're kinda shitty," Julie looked up at R's chin. When they had first come over R sat on the couch and Julie had plopped herself right next to him, placed one ear phone in her own ear and the other in his cooler one, and then leaned her head to rest on his chest. Although there was no heartbeat to be heard, it was still comforting and both readily welcomed that feeling. They listened to thirty odd songs while leaning against each other in comfort, before Julie yawned.

"You…Need…Sleep," R's quiet rasp was still heard by the blond haired girl, and she reluctantly lifted her head and turned the iPod off. She and R both stood up and made their way upstairs hand in hand. When she let go of R's hand in front of the final two doors in the upper hallway. She checked both for actual furniture in the room, in case she needed to block the door, and a locking door. The room on the left turned out to have more furniture that could easily be moved in the case of actual corpses or boneys breaking in.

She felt safer with R closer to her, so instead of pulling bedding from the opposite bedroom and having him lay on the floor, he laid on the side of the bed closer to the door, again just incase anything got through before they could get out. Since becoming close to the zombie, she has always felt safer with him in the general vicinity, i.e. on R's plane at the airport either being a row or two from each other or sleeping on the floor near eachother. So with her head on R's chest and an arm around his torso, she happily fell asleep.

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><p><strong>Was going to leave it there, but then it would be pretty short.<strong>

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><p>Just as the sun was coming above the horizon, Julie was just waking up from her peaceful sleep when she heard a faint <em>ba-bump <em>from the makeshift pillow underneath her ear. Julie kept completely still and strained her ear to try to hear that sound again from the other occupant of the bed that clearly should not have any sort of heartbeat, as no blood moves through his veins. After a while there was another faint _ba-bump_, this time she was clearly awake and not tired at all. Julie continued to lay there just straining for that sound that should not be coming from the corpse-like person beneath her head.

The _ba-bumps_ kept getting more and more frequent as some time passed. Carefully she lifted her head to gaze upon his face. R's face looked less pale than ever before, and there was a slight rose tint to his cheeks that clearly has never been there for the entire time that Julie had known the zombie. Even more carefully she cupped his cheek, which R leaned into subconsciously. She quietly gasped as he definitely felt warmer than before but Julie was not completely sure if it was from her proximity, laying under covers all night, or from the unimaginable that seems to have happened. She was going to leave R without a goodbye, thinking it would be easier, but decided to wait until he awake to see his eyes. He may have a heartbeat, but the infection may show in his eyes, then he'd never be able to go to the Stadium with her! Julie disregarded her last thought and snuggled back into R's chest, quickly fading away to the rhythmic sound of life under her ear.

They were startled awake by the bedroom door slamming open against the wall. Two very familiar men burst in with guns ready to take out any threats. She kept her arm firm on R's chest to try to keep him from sitting up, hoping he could take this hint and not react terribly to the sudden intrusion of somewhat heavily armed men.

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><p><strong>This is all I have prepared so far, but no worries still have the inspiration flowing for this. <strong>

**Cheers,**

**Mickey**


	3. Rosso

**Sorry for the long update time. It got a little crazy around midterms and tournaments. Anyway onto the story.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 3 Rosso<strong>

After he kicked the door in Grigio rushed in with his gun cocked and ready to take out any immediate threats with deadly accuracy. Rosso followed his superior through the newly busted door quickly noticing the two people laying in the bed. One familiar to him, the other was masculine, and not welcome to be that close with his pseudo daughter without him scaring the lad first.

Julie's blonde hair shook when she bolted upright, he noted that she kept a firm arm on the others chest, probably suppressing him and trying to keep the other hidden for as long as possible. She should know by now that not much gets by Grigio and himself, together nothing could pull the wool over their eyes. Guns were stilled pointed at the unknown figure that had been startled at their intrusion, but stayed down once he had felt the weight lightly pushing down on his chest.

"Julie I'm glad you're alright, but please stand up and move away from the bed with the strange man that's probably scaredstiff on it," the general said in a pointed, but still softer than normal tone. Julie slowly got out of the bed after squeezing R's hand and walked over towards her father and surrogate father. "Alright now I'm going to continue to have me gun trained on you so no sudden movements, but I just need to know a few things, so just relax and remember no sudden movements. We are trained soldiers and you do not want to try to pull a trick on us. Now Julie, where did you meet the man who was in bed with you," Grigio asked?

"He shot down some of the zombies that had grabbed me to, I assume, bring back to their dwelling for later. He can't talk well so don't expect any answers from him anytime soon, but we've been traveling long enough for me to get to know him well enough. Also I feel like I owe him for saving me from becoming a midnight snack of some corpses," Julie hid her cringe when she said corpse knowing how R felt about the word.

"Alright son, you seem ok to me for saving my girl. Now sit up and let us just test your eyes so that we know you're not infected," Grigio said. "Rosso, you have your scanner?"

"Yessir," I dutifully replied already grabbing the aforementioned tech. He carefully approached the bed, not yet trusting the strange boy who had been in bed with his surrogate daughter. He first gently grabbed the boys wrist, feeling for a pulse. It took a little longer than should have been necessary because they had just barged into the room with guns almost blazing. The pulse was also a lot fainter, softer, and slower than any human's should be, especially since we now face starving corpses hungry for living flesh. He kept the hand on his wrist as he turned on the machine and brought it up to his face. The boy didn't look to be outwardly panicking, but had the look of, well defeat. As the scanner beeped to let me know that it was done, he looked up to see one of his worst nightmares. He could feel the blood flow out of his face, skin going as pale as the newly revealed full blown corpse in the bed. He quickly got away from the bed, scanner forgotten on the floor. The two war hardened men quickly trained their guns on the corpse.

"I guess the results were positive then," Grigio stated not questioned because the answer was obvious from the moment Rosso moved from the bed. "Julie did you know that the person who saved you and traveled with you was a corpse," He glanced towards Grigio. The generals eyes were hardened and clearly trained on the corpse in the bed.

"Yes," came the quiet answer from the normally loud spoken girl from behind them. She had slowly and carefully been walked to the bed, out of their line of sight. Once she got to the bed, she calmly sat next to the 'lifeless man' and twined their fingers together. "To tell you the truth Dad, R was one of the zombies that attacked our group. He was the one to kill Perry," both guys were stunned by the confession. "R brought me back to the airport and kept me safe in his airplane," she paused, "We decided to run when I uh, travelled too far out of the plane and got the attention of the boneys and other zombies so they chased us out." The guns in the mens hands slowly fell down to their side. Rosso was the first to recover.

"I'm guessing you can talk corpse," at the cringe and nod that he got from the undead guy still in just about the same position as where he'd left him. "Then can you tell us why you haven't done anything to Julie. Not that we don't appreciate it, but it doesn't seem to be in your species nature to _protect _your food source," Rosso emphasized food source.

"Made sure Perry couldn't come back. Took his brain. Got memories from eating it," R had been taking pauses between some of his sentences, but here he clearly took the pause to think. "During our hunt, i felt need to protect Julie. Sorry about Perry, got to know him uh well. Would change some stuff if I could go back." The sentences were still broken, but they were getting better, longer as he spoke. Julie just sat calmly curled into his side as if all of this wasn't new information to her. After a minute of silence, Rosso spoke again.

"Grigio, as impossible as this sounds he has a heartbeat," Here the general looked to his second in command, then over the the couple on the bed with disbelief in his eyes. He slowly approached the bed and reached for the zombie's free hand. Although the general was hardened by war, he still flinched when the zombie flipped his hand over for better wrist exposure. The outstretched hand continued its journey until two finger were pressed firmly onto the thumb side of the wrist. After a few second he felt the pulse, faint but still there. He released the zombie's wrist and it fell back to the bed.

"Son, do you know why you have a heartbeat," Grigio was still dumbfounded by the discovery and needed to know why the corpse in front of him had a heartbeat. At the shrug of his shoulders, Julie gently elbowed him.

"You know how I feel about shrugging R," Julie bantered. She seemed very nonplused about this whole situation, as if the information he was telling us was old news and she wasn't sitting next to something that could kill her at any time. He and Grigio went down to the kitchen table after excusing themselves from the room. After a few tense minutes of the general and himself talking at the kitchen table, the two men return to the bedroom the strange undead and their girl was currently staying in.

"Julie, we've come to an agreement about what we will do about the corpse," Grigio stated while Rosso stood in the corner by the door, and Julie gripped R's hand tighter. "I am going to go back to the Stadium and return here before sundown with enough canned for for two and a half people. Rosso going to stay here with you for the week and check on him for this week. If he really is developing a heartbeat, then maybe he is turning back to human. I'll be back at the end of the week to see his progress. In seven days you'll be back home in our house no matter what happens to that corpse. Understood," Grigio had a no nonsense tone to his voice as he somewhat commanded his daughter to be ready to come home with or without her 'boyfriend?' With a nod of her head Julie resigned herself to the possibility of living a life with our R after living just about one month with him in it.

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><p><strong>Next chapter is already up.<strong>


	4. R

**HOORAY! Last chapter**

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><p><strong>Epilogue R<strong>

Grigio rounded up the soldiers he had brought with him on their search that morning. He told the soldiers that Julie and Rosso were going to stay in one of the houses for the week because Julie had heard of the possibility of some survivors while she had been returning to the Stadium.

Day by day Rosso kept a journal of how the progress with R was going. R's normally faded grey-blue eyes grew to a piercing icy blue in the middle and faded out to a sliver near the outside of the pupil, and his skin went from deathly pale into a more human peachy toned. His heartbeat grew stronger with the passing of each day and his speech improved dramatically from the blood pumping into his brain. By the time that Grigio came back, R had started to nibble on some human food from Julie's plate.

On the third day, M and a small group of zombies were limp-walking through the streets of the neighborhood. Julie looked out the window during one of Rosso's examinations of R's humanness. She recognized M and practically ran over to R to tell him his friend was outside. As it turns out, Julie and R sparked the cure in the zombies, but the boneys just withered away to dust when the cure reached to them. The other zombies were turning back at a slower rate than R, but that was probably because they were only experiencing the cure second hand from being in contact with R and Julie or others that had the cure.

When Grigio came back, R was able to stay in the proximity of multiple humans and still be normal, his speech had greatly improved from his broken statements, and basically he was only a few more days from being fully alive again. Grigio had brought a handful of men with him after telling them this somewhat classified information and two had volunteered to stay with the other group who were about two weeks from being at R's level of human.

Overall things were going great for the living world. The flesh hungry, undead corpses that once roamed the Earth, were coming back to life feeding on normal food and there were also no undead skeletons to tear anything with a heartbeat apart either. R and Julie continued to stay together and R gained back some of his memories from before he died. The Earth was slowly coming back to life one person at a time.

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><p><strong>Kinda short, but there really wasn't too many loose ends in this chapter and I am also assuming you know how the story goes.<strong>

**Thanks for staying with me,**

**Mickeyallister**


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